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Meanwhile the unconscious Galba, busy with his
sacrifice, was importuning the gods of an empire that was now another's. A
rumour reached him, that some senator unknown was being hurried into the
camp; before long it was affirmed that this senator was Otho. At the same
time came messengers from all parts of the city, where they had chanced to
meet the procession, some exaggerating the danger, some, who could not even
then forget to flatter, representing it as less than the reality. On
deliberation it was determined to sound the feeling of the cohort on guard
in the palace, but not through Galba in person, whose authority was to be
kept unimpaired to meet greater emergencies. They were accordingly collected
before the steps of the palace, and Piso addressed them as
follows:—"Comrades, this is the sixth day since I became a Cæsar
by adoption, not knowing what was to happen, whether this title was to be
desired, or dreaded. It rests with you to determine what will be the result
to my family and to the state. It is not that I dread on my own account the
gloomier issue; for I have known adversity, and I am learning at this very
moment that prosperity is fully as dangerous. It is the lot of my father, of
the Senate, of the Empire itself, that I deplore, if we have either to fall
this day, or to do what is equally abhorrent to the good, to put others to
death. In the late troubles we had this consolation, a capital unstained by
bloodshed, and power transferred without strife. It was thought that by my
adoption provision was made against the possibility of war, even after
Galba's death.